Pakinggan Pilipinas

At the 2019 Performatura Festival at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, we celebrated the 100th Birth Day of Edith Tiempo, National Artist for Literature. Her former mentees Patricia Evangelista, Alma Anonas-Carpio, and Dr Noel Pingoy paid a touching tribute through personal stories and poetry.

Profuse thanks to the CCP Intertextual Division, Beverly Wico-Siy, Geraldine Villarin, production staff, and tech crew; to the speakers Patricia Evangelista, Alma Anonas-Carpio, Dr Noel Pingoy, as well as to Kate Aton Osias and Carl Javier (whose audio unfortunately encountered tech issues).  Special thanks to the Kahayag Dance Company. 

Theme music by Pepe Manikan. 

Two stories in one episode! First up, just in time for the holiday break, TWILIGHT OF THE MAGI written by Dominique Cimafranca, narrated by Zack Bulatao and Epok Claravall. This piece was first published in Philippine Genre Stories (2007). The second story is GOD IS THE SPACE BETWEEN written by Maryanne Moll and voiced by Dulce Amor Fortunado. This one has strong adult themes and may not be appropriate for young children.  The story first appeared in Philippine Genre Stories.

This episode was originally released in December 2010. For more updates, follow us on Facebook@PakingganPilipinas or Twitter@pakingganpinas. Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan. Story used with permission from the author.

Craving for some low-key horror? “NEW TOY” might do the trick. This short fiction is by writer, comic, and pro-wrestling advocate Joseph Montecillo, and narrated by copywriter, biking enthusiast, and bookworm J.T. Tirona. The story was first published in Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 5 (2010 Kestrel).

This episode was originally released in July 2011. For more updates, follow us on Facebook@PakingganPilipinas or Twitter@pakingganpinas.

Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan. Story used with permission from the author.

If you’re one of the country’s commuting public, it’s likely that you’ve been stranded at least once in your life, and almost always the cause of your troubles is brought about by some form of flooding that cannot, or would not, be explained by public works officials. 

Author Nikki Alfar offers a bizarre tale on being stranded, in this episode's featured story “ADRIFT ON THE STREET FORMERLY KNOWN AS BUENDIA”, narrated by veterinarian and animal lover Karen Vigo. It first appeared in the Philippines Free Press (2007), and then again in Bewildering Stories. The Bewildering Stories editors loved it so much that it became one of the recipients of the site’s most signal honor, the 2010 Mariner Award.

This episode was originally released in March 2011. A lot of the things mentioned in the end may or may not have come to pass. For more accurate updates, follow us on Facebook@PakingganPilipinas or Twitter@pakingganpinas.

Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan. Story used with permission from the author. 

In celebration of Philippine Independence Day, we're featuring "Bisita" by Eliza Victoria for our first ever episode in Filipino. It's been a long dream of ours to present an audio drama episode, and hopefully this leads to many more.

Follow us on Facebook@PakingganPilipinas or Twitter@pakingganpinas for future episode updates.

Director: Jenna Macalagay
Sound Design and Musical Score: Pepe Manikan
Original Theme Music: Pepe Manikan
Hosted, produced and adapted* for audio podcast: Elyss G Punsalan
Narrator: Jona Paculan
Voice Actors: Eds Locano, Genevieve Faraon
Additional Voices: Pepe Manikan, Jenna Macalagay, Kat Cruz, Elyss Punsalan, and JC Pulido
Additional Script Editing: Ava Palmaria

*This episode was adapted from "Bisita", short fiction by Eliza Victoria, first published in "Sapantaha: Kalipunan ng mga Maikling Kuwentong Spekulatibo at Imahinatibo" (Editors: Luna Sicat Cleto and Rolando Tinio. University of the Philippines Press, Dec 2017). Produced with permission from the author. 

Summer is almost officially upon us, so how about a story that involves the beach, a reporter, and maybe a mer-creature?

Listen to "A Fishy Tale" by Apol Lejano-Massebieau, narrated by fiction and travel writer Yvette Tan. The story was published in the fiction anthology A TIME FOR DRAGONS, edited by Vincent Simbulan, and published by Anvil in 2009.  Apol is a writer, wife, mother, product designer, entrepreneur, and now Creative Director of "Good Luck, Humans", a shop of handmade, recycled, repurposed, and may I say, beautiful objects. If you’d like to read more of her written work, look for her book of essays "PROVENCIANA".

This episode was first released in Sept 2011. Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan. Story used with permission from the author. 

Did you catch the cold in the last few weeks? How bad was it? Probably not as bad as the one this guy caught.

We're featuring "The Sniffles", written by Carljoe Javier and narrated by Joel Macaventa. The story first appeared in print in the collection Tales of Fantasy and Enchantment, edited by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, published by Milflores. You can check out more stories by Carljoe Javier in his books "And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth", "The Kobayashi Maru of Love", and "Geek Tragedies".

This episode was first released in Feb 2011. Story used with permission from the author. 

This teaser was originally released in 2011. Don't worry, the full episode comes this Sunday, March 10, 2019. 

Two brothers are drawn together and then apart, over and over through space and time. Listen to Eliza Victoria's "Reunion", narrrated by Solo Galura. The story was published in 2009 in the Philippines Free Press, and won the Grand Prize for fiction in the magazine’s 2010 Literary Awards.

Eliza Victoria is the author of several books including the Philippine National Book Award-winning Dwellers (2014), the novel Wounded Little Gods (2016), the graphic novel After Lambana (2016, a collaboration with Mervin Malonzo), and the science fiction novel-in-stories, Nightfall (2018). She is currently in Sydney, Australia working toward a Master of Creative Writing degree at the University of Sydney.

This episode was originally released in May 2011. Story used with permission from the author. Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan.

Teaser originally released May 2011.
Full episode dropping on Sunday, March 3 2019. 

Did you ever think everything was much simpler in college?

KARA’S PLACE by Luis Katigbak is the featured story this episode, and it’s narrated by another writer, Christine "Tin" Lao. The story appears in Luis’s story collection, Happy Endings (UP Press).  Podcast originally released in June 2011. 

The host and narrator attempt to have an intelligent discussion about “Kara’s Place”, so stick around until the end of the podcast. Do ignore the giggling.

Story used with permission from the author. 

"Soon, lines are bent, color is removed from color, shape is shrugged off, the frame disappears and meaning appears."

Listen to "Self with Dog, 1997” by Angelo R. Lacuesta, a.k.a. Sarge Lacuesta, narrated for us by Edward Quilo. An earlier version of the story appeared in the Philippine Graphic, and was later included in Sarge’s collection “White Elephants, Stories”, published by Anvil. His latest work is  "Stay: 21 Comic Stories", anthology made in collaboration with 17 local comic artists, a photographer, and a visual artist.

This episode was first released in November 2010.  Story used with permission from the author. Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan.  

"'Sometimes,' I said, 'I see and hear things others don't. I dream things, know things I shouldn't know.'"

Listen to Yvette Tan’s The Bridge, deliciously narrated by the inimitable Nikki Alfar .The story first saw print in Story Philippines (2009) and was later anthologized in A Time for Dragons (Anvil, 2009). It also appeared in Waking the Dead (Anvil 2009), Yvette’s own collection of stories. “The Bridge” also won a prize in the 2nd Philippine/Graphic Fiction Awards sponsored by Fully Booked.

The story has been abridged, with Yvette’s permission, of course, for this podcast. The whole episode is still about 28 minutes long, but I tell you, time’s going to fly by without you noticing it.

This episode was first released in October 2010. Story written by Yvette Tan. Narrated by Nikki Alfar. Story used with permission from the author. Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan.

There's something in the water that's making everybody skinny, and people are dying. A science fiction gem from FH Batacan, author of the groundbreaking crime novel "Smaller and Smaller Circles".  

"Keeping Time" was written by FH Batacan. Read by Alex Osias. This episode was originally released in Jan 2011. Story used with permission from the author. Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan. 

The story first appeared in the Philippines Free Press (2007), and then was reprinted in Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 3 (edited by Dean and Nikki Alfar; Kestrel).  In 2008, “Keeping Time” won first prize in Free Press Literary Awards, short story category.

The Sparrows of Climaco Avenue  was written in remembrance of the Ondoy tragedy. It first saw print in Rocket Kapre’s Ruin and Resolve, a charity anthology put together by Paolo Chikiamco, then reprinted in Philippine Speculative Fiction 5, edited by Nikki Alfar and Vin Simbulan.

Story written by Kenneth Yu. Read by Fides Bernardo. This episode was originally released in Sept 2010. Story used with permission from the author. Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan. 

How do you move on from the death of someone you love?

Story written by Kate Aton-Osias, and read by Elyss Punsalan.
Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan. This episode was originally released in July 2010. Story used with permission from the author.

"Ghost Between Moments" first appeared in the fiction webzine Bewildering Stories, and was later on included in the magazine’s Editor’s Choices. You can find more stories from Kate Osias in her new book "Heroes, Villains, and Other Women".

While he was stranded by a storm in Dumaguete, author Dean Francis Alfar felt an acute longing for home. He then decided to create an alternate Manila where "the strange was commonplace" in "Six from Downtown".   

This audio piece was originally published July 2010 with permission from the author, and read by Kate Aton-Osias and Blue Soon. Hosted and produced by Elyss Punsalan.

The story first saw print in Philippines Free Press (2006), then reappeared in Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 2 (2006, Kestrel), Dean’s collection Kite of Stars and Other Stories (2007, Anvil), as well as online in the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler. The piece won a prize in the 2007 Free Press Awards.